A Comparison of Probabilistic Reasoning in Psychology Undergraduates in Italy and Spain: Seeking Cross-national Evidence.

Abstract

A cross-national comparison between Italy and Spain was conducted on probabilisticreasoning performance presented in verbal-numerical and graphical-pictorial formats.This study investigated the similarities and differences in Psychology undergraduatesin these two countries (Italy n=290; Spain n=130) and attempted to identify aspectsthat might enhance the probability of a student belonging to one country. The findingsunderscored that Spanish students had higher levels of visuospatial abilities, morepositive attitudes toward statistics, lower statistical anxiety, and higher confidence in the correctness of their responses. Additionally, they gave a higher number of correctresponses to problems presented in a verbal-numerical format. These data suggestinteresting insights and highlight the interactions among multiple layers of variables at the collective, contextual, and individual levels.